Summit Cheeseburger

A four-month summit hiatus had left me eager to return to the site of my most recent escapade, Porcupine Mountains State Park in Michigan's Upper Peninsula.  With a rough plan in place and partners of both human and canine origin, I drove east searching for glory.

Our first stop left us at Lake of the Clouds, one my favorite spots in the Midwest.  Based on the map at the park, we anticipated a hike of about 2 miles to Miscowawbic Peak.  We shouldered all of our food, cooking gear, and set off to the east.  

After a half hour and several insances of tripping over the dog, we arrived at the high poing along the valley walls.  Here, the kitchen was constructed and the dining awaited our empty stomachs.  

Next stop: LaFayette Peak.

Another lovely Sunday morning hike. Butler Fork up to Circle-All peak. Swift, but steep, not a long hike at all, but it was still a little bit of a work out to get to the summit. As usual the hike through Aspens was lovely and we were treated to some very lovely butterflys!

And of course, there were cheesburgers!

I heard about the Summit Cheeseburger project a while back, and it's been in the back of my mind ever since. So when the 9th Geocaching World Wide Flash Mob date was announced, I decided that this was a perfect opportunity to combine both! I publicized the vent as both, sending people to both websites for the background information.

The night before the event, I went to the local golden arches to find out about getting "early morning cheeseburgers", since the event was at 10:00 am and it was going to take some time to get up there. I couldn't get any cooperation, so I purchased my 20 cheeseburgers and took 'em home.

The morning of the event, I got up at 0500 and popped the cheeseburgers in the oven. When it was time to head out I put them in a 12v warming box for the drive up the mountain.

We got to the top of the mountain only to find out that the winds were gusting up to 55mph and cold. Luckily, there was a tower we could take shelter in on the roof of the visitor center directly above the summit. By my estimation, we were ~50 feet above the actual summit.

When the time came we had 11 participants and some curious onlookers. We shared our cheeseburgers, donned out cheeseburger hats, and sang "Cheeseburger in Paradise". All told, we satisifed the Flash Mob requirements and the Summit requirements as far as we know. Unfortunately we had some who could not make it, but there are more summits around us to conquer.

Here is the official WWFM IX picture, and a couple of views from the summit:

To view panorama go to: http://pnr.ma/eVCmvV

Plans were made Saturday to hike Circle-All-Peak sunday June 10.  It was short notice so the usual cheeseburger crowd didnt show.  Thomas and I set out on a unseasonably chilly morning from the Butler Fork Trailhead in BCC.  And though it was cold, it was steep and the layers were quickly shed.  And we hiked on, and on and on.  Past two turn-offs to Dog Lake!  And then we were at Baker Pass.  What?  Where was the left turn we were supoosed to take to Cirlcle-All-Peak?!!!?

 Well, now we had choices...up to west was Mt. Raymond...and to the east Gobblers Knob.  We chose Gobblers Knob since I've already burgered Mt Raymond.  And up we went a half mile to the top. And we were beaten to the top by a 70 year old woman.  She was amazing and our inspiration.  I'm going out to get me some of that Ensure stuff she was drinking at Baker Pass.  I hear its better than Red Bull! ;-)

What a gorgeous day and a perfect place to enjoy Garam Masala Sliders.   We found the trail to Cirle-All-Peak on our way down...  :-)

On Saturday, we hiked with some friends to Warner Hill, a small summit on the Appalachian Trail east of Pittsfield, MA.  It's about a 3-mile section of the AT, for an out-and-back hike of a little over 6 miles.  We had to first pass over Tully Mountain, a flat summit with no view, for the first cheeseburger of the day.

In general, the trail was well-worn and only gently rolling.  This was a good thing, given the high humidity as we hit the trail - we'd all be pretty worn out by the end of the day.

The most amazing thing about this trail section was the profusion of ferns.  According to the trail guide, the most common were spinulose wood ferns, not that I would ever know that or be able to identify them again.  They were everywhere, but especially in the open fields as we approached the summit of Warner Hill.
 

The summit had nice views to the north and west, with the Taconic Range and Mount Greylock being most prominent.  We could also see the spinning wind turbines at Jiminy Peak, near Hancock.
 

Taconic Range to the west

Mount Greylock in the far hazy distance

There was a nice breeze here, and virtually no bugs at all, so we had a leisurely lunch, and a second cheeseburger, before retracing our route. 

It seemed a lot longer heading back, probably because of the toll the humidity had taken on us earlier.  It was improving now, but the damage had been done.  The ice cream stop on the way home was definitely most welcome.

On Saturday, we hiked with some friends to Warner Hill, a small summit on the Appalachian Trail east of Pittsfield, MA.  It's about a 3-mile section of the AT, for an out-and-back hike of a little over 6 miles.  We had to first pass over Tully Mountain, a flat summit with no view, for the first cheeseburger of the day.

In general, the trail was well-worn and only gently rolling.  This was a good thing, given the high humidity as we hit the trail - we'd all be pretty worn out by the end of the day.

The most amazing thing about this trail section was the profusion of ferns.  According to the trail guide, the most common were spinulose wood ferns, not that I would ever know that or be able to identify them again.  They were everywhere, but especially in the open fields as we approached the summit of Warner Hill.
 

The summit had nice views to the north and west, with the Taconic Range and Mount Greylock being most prominent.  We could also see the spinning wind turbines at Jiminy Peak, near Hancock.
 

Taconic Range to the west

Mount Greylock in the far hazy distance

There was a nice breeze here, and virtually no bugs at all, so we had a leisurely lunch, and a second cheeseburger, before retracing our route. 

It seemed a lot longer heading back, probably because of the toll the humidity had taken on us earlier.  It was improving now, but the damage had been done.  The ice cream stop on the way home was definitely most welcome.

Another quick Wednesday after work summit... Not a long hike, only about 1.5 miles to the summit, but steep, with a 2140 ft elevation gain, perfect for a weeknight. While we had some intermittent sunshine on the way up, mother nature was busy brewing up a storm, so by the time we reached the summit an hour and half after leaving the parking lot, the temperature had big winds were a blowing. It was downright frigid and we were  nearly blown off the mountain when we paused at the top for our cheeseburger break.

Between the crazy weather and hiking up a thin rock channel and sliding down winding trails this hike was like a game of Chutes and Ladders for Adventure Girls!!!

The Chutes -

The Ladder -

The Cheeseburgers!

Thanks groundround for the delicious burgers!

If you care about the big picture, you can read about part one and part two first.

The trek from Benbrack to Knockbrack was fairly simple... relatively firm bog and rocky bits, and didn't take very long either. In fact the whole trek over the 3 peaks was only 4 hours according to the tracking app on my phone, and more than an hour and half of that was resting time. But who could blame us? Our excuse (at least KB's excuse) back on the first summit was lack of sleep, but once we were on the summits and ridges, the views were brilliant. And the weather was excellent too!

At the summit of Knockbrack, Lenny (aka LooneyTunes) had his second summit cheeseburger of the day while I plotted approaches to the neighbouring peaks for future hikes.

Since there was no trail on these hills, the trek back down to the car was simply a matter of dodging the bog. We had a couple of good rests on the way, taking in the last of the views from altitude, like this one of Kylemore Abbey at the base of Doughruagh (don't ask me how to pronounce that!)... a summit that will most likely be conquered over the June bank-holiday weekend.

Sheep and their lambs scattered. KB fell on a not-very-steep bit, went into a dramatic roll in slow motion, got up, and continued down the hill. Somewhere along the route is LooneyTunes' phone, so if you happen to be in the area, keep your eye out for it. And that was how I introduced Lenny to Summit Cheeseburgers. I hope he's hooked!

-Krusty Bunz

A beautiful day was on tap, so Holly and I got out for a short hike on the east side of Lake George.  Shelving Rock Mountain is only a 1.7-mile hike from Shelving Rock Road, and has great views of Lake George for a minimum of effort.  Neither of us had been here before, and new territory is getting harder to find, so this was a very interesting day out.

Many of the trails off of Shelving Rock Road, west of the Hogtown Trailhead, follow old carriage roads built long ago by the Knapp Estate (can't find a good link).  The trail to Shelving Rock Mountain is no exception, with gentle grades and many switchbacks.

At the summit was a great view of southern Lake George.  It almost didn't look real.

To the east, we could see the cliffs of Sleeping Beauty Mountain.

After downing the celebratory White Castle, it was time to move on.

Below the summit, we found a herd path to the top of some cliffs with panoramic views of the lake, from its south end to Montcalm Point, the southern tip of the Tongue Mountain Range.  We had lunch here and lingered for a while.

On the descent, we noticed some of the only wildflowers of the day, many columbine growing on the sunniest hillsides.

When we got back to the car, we replenished our water, and then walked a short distance down the road to another gated carriage road, this one leading to the top of Shelving Rock Falls.  This was a very nice waterfall with a steep gorge below.  But since waterfalls are best viewed from the bottom, we found our way down for some wonderful views.

Returning to the car, we had covered a grand total of 3.7 miles and taken in some wonderful scenery close to home on a beautiful day.  The obligatory ice cream stop finished it off as we headed for home.

This story began here, on Benbaun.

From Benbaun, we followed the boggy ridge towards the next summit on our agenda for this sunny Irish Cinco de Mayo Saturday: Benbrack.

Another of the 12 Bens in Connemara, the walk to Benbrack was dead easy now that we were fueled up with our first cheeseburger... that and it was nowhere near as steep!

The boggy descent to the saddle was followed with a rocky ascent up to the summit which was marked with a pile of stones. 

As we each had only two cheeseburgers for a three summit hike, and having both eaten our first one on the first summit, we decided to divide and conquer... I had my second cheeseburger here on Benbrack, and Lenny saved his for the final summit.

With my cheeseburger in hand from my perch on the summit, I surveyed the neighbouring hills to plan a route for a future sojurn into Connemara National Park.

Another leisurely break completed, we turned west north-west towards our third peak of the day, Knockbrack. 

(Hopefully Lenny will get himself registered here soon so that his story of the day's final cheeseburger can be told.)